# Movie sidekicks that suck
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 20, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664 "2007-12-20T02:46:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/21 "2007-12-20T04:13:00Z")
Does it have to be the hero’s sidekick? Villains have had some pretty lame sidekicks as well. Or is a villain’s sidekick by definition a henchman?
If TV counted, Twikki from Buck Rodgers would be up there.
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### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/22 "2007-12-20T04:13:24Z")
[QUOTE=silenus]
Ah, but Willie is disqualified because she was the “Love Interest/Woman In Peril,” not the sidekick.
[/QUOTE]
But she was the most annoying thing in the movie!
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### Author:  [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/23 "2007-12-20T04:15:51Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit]
**Snails** , played by Marlon Wayans. He is the sidekick of **Ridley** , from _Dungeons and Dragons_.
[/QUOTE]
Huh. I gotta agree with this. **Short Round** is awful. But **Snails** is epic in his awfulness.
That film would rank high in my personal top 10 worst films of all time list, if I actually had one.
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### Author:  [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/24 "2007-12-20T04:16:18Z")
I think this one meets all the criteria:
1. definitely not the hero/protagonist.
2. big time annoying. Even the hero can do without him.
3. with the hero throughout 75% of the movie (at least)
4. kind of a team-effort, but they do save the hero’s life.
I nominate: C3PO from the original “Star Wars” (or “episode IV: A New Hope”)
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### Author:  [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/25 "2007-12-20T04:20:21Z")
[QUOTE=smiling bandit]
**Snails** , played by Marlon Wayans. He is the sidekick of **Ridley** , from _Dungeons and Dragons_.
[/QUOTE]
You’d be correct, except that movie never happened.
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### Author:  [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/26 "2007-12-20T04:21:30Z")
Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman in _Superman III_?
ETA: I don’t remember the movie enough to know if he actually saved Supes or anyone else in any way.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/27 "2007-12-20T06:26:43Z")
[QUOTE=Swallowed My Cellphone]
Richard Pryor as Gus Gorman in _Superman III_?
ETA: I don’t remember the movie enough to know if he actually saved Supes or anyone else in any way.
[/QUOTE]
He did. After a change of heart, he smashed the kryptonite beam that his out-of-control computer was using on Superman.
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### Author:  [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/28 "2007-12-20T06:37:36Z")
Daisy in The Brown Bunny. Badly, I might add.
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### Author:  [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/29 "2007-12-20T06:42:18Z")
> [@Sublight](#):
>
> Does it have to be the hero’s sidekick? Villains have had some pretty lame sidekicks as well. Or is a villain’s sidekick by definition a henchman?
Wouldn’t you say there’s a difference between a sidekick and a henchman? A sidekick is the villain’s right-hand man, while the henchmen are just his pawns.
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### Author:  [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/30 "2007-12-20T11:24:57Z")
\*\*Justin Long’s \*\* _Matt Farrell_ character from **Live Free or Die Hard**.
Bruce Willis does not need an annoying side kick which is why Die Hards One and Two worked and Three and Four didn’t.
Long’s Farrell was annoying to the extreme, played a by-the-book wholly unimaginative doofus teaming up with a bad-ass and couldn’t even pull that off well. His character was created from Hollywood Script Writers Big Book of Clichés and his every step and line of dialogue was pre-dict-a-bull.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/31 "2007-12-20T13:03:47Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect]
Wouldn’t you say there’s a difference between a sidekick and a henchman? A sidekick is the villain’s right-hand man, while the henchmen are just his pawns.
[/QUOTE]
Basocally, it works like this - \*\*henchmen \*\* are skilled labor. They’re the specialists, the trusted bodyguards and the commandos. The actual right-hand men (or women, of course), are **lieutenants** if they have actual skills, or \*\*toadies \*\* if they don’t.
The grunts are **minions**.
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### Author:  [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/32 "2007-12-20T13:05:40Z")
[QUOTE=minlokwat]
Bruce Willis does not need an annoying side kick which is why Die Hards One and Two worked and Three and Four didn’t.
.
[/QUOTE]
Ummm…no. Die Hard 2 sucked ass so badly that there was no ass left in 5 mile radii around any theater showing it.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/33 "2007-12-20T13:07:53Z")
Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) from\*\* The 5th Element\*\*. That voice. Those clothes.
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### Author:  [@Pithy\_Moniker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pithy_Moniker)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/34 "2007-12-20T13:23:25Z")
“Cova ya heart Indy! Cova ya heart!” Oh yeah, Short Round all the way.
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### Author:  [@brewha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brewha)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/35 "2007-12-20T13:24:20Z")
[QUOTE=MrDibble]
Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) from\*\* The 5th Element\*\*. That voice. Those clothes.
[/QUOTE]
I gotta agree that Chris Tucker pretty much ruined that movie for me. I don’t know if he counts as a sidekick by the OP’s rules though.
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### Author:  [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/36 "2007-12-20T13:45:02Z")
Following a careful and protracted analysis of the rules I have no hesitation in nominating Dr. Watson as played by Nigel Bruce.
Bruce portrays the character as so annoyingly dim and incompetent that he makes Basil Rathbone look like Sherlock Holmes. Watson arguably saved Holmes’ life in a non Nigel Bruce movie, to wit _The Seven Per-Cent Solution_, when he persuaded Holmes to visit Vienna for treatment by Sigmund Freud. There are probably other examples of Watson’s life saving skills but I can’t be bothered to do any research.
The only way I can lose this thread is if someone invents a rule stipulating that the sidekick must be annoying in every movie he appears in, and not just those movies in which he is played by a particular actor.
I am on tenterhooks while I await adjudication by the OP.
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### Author:  [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/37 "2007-12-20T14:04:44Z")
He comes rather close to violating rule #5,\* but…Robin from _Batman Forever_ and _Batman and Robin_.
I wouldn’t settle for calling him an annoying jerk…he, to be precise, is a snotty little shit. Rather more suggestive of Jason Todd than Dick Grayson, from what I understand.
\*At least, this version of the character. I’m having a difficult time deciding if it was an intentional subtext, or if the director just let it slip in because he didn’t understand any other way to film it. Kind of like…Michael Bay, only with gay camp instead of exploding cars.
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### Author:  [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/38 "2007-12-20T15:11:13Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight]
Does it have to be the hero’s sidekick? Villains have had some pretty lame sidekicks as well. Or is a villain’s sidekick by definition a henchman?
[/quote]
Good question! I guess I’ll allow evil sidekicks, but then the rules that apply regarding heroes must apply regarding the main villain.
> [@](#):
>
> If TV counted, Twikki from Buck Rodgers would be up there.
Not a bad choice at all.
[QUOTE=cormac262]
I nominate: C3PO from the original “Star Wars” (or “episode IV: A New Hope”)
[/QUOTE]
Oh yes. Oh yes oh yes oh yes.
[QUOTE=Chez Guevara]
Following a careful and protracted analysis of the rules I have no hesitation in nominating Dr. Watson as played by Nigel Bruce.
[…]
The only way I can lose this thread is if someone invents a rule stipulating that the sidekick must be annoying in every movie he appears in, and not just those movies in which he is played by a particular actor.
I am on tenterhooks while I await adjudication by the OP.
[/QUOTE]
Accepted. But it’s been so long since I’ve seen any of those Holmes movies I can’t say I remember anything about him.
[QUOTE=MrDibble]
Ruby Rhod (Chris Tucker) from\*\* The 5th Element\*\*. That voice. Those clothes.
[/QUOTE]
Chris Tucker was in the 5th element? … (looks up on google image search) … Oh yes. That was the part of the movie I repressed. Good choice.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/39 "2007-12-20T15:23:05Z")
[QUOTE=Superfluous Parentheses]
I must _really_ have missed something by not seeing Temple of Doom.
[/QUOTE]
[hijack]-
Actually, you have. While parts of the movieare awful, it also contains some of the finest action sequences ever filled. As is usual with Spielberg, 99% of the film’s problems can be traced to script and casting; the direction, editing, music, sets and so on are impeccable.
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### Author:  [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-sidekicks-that-suck/430664/40 "2007-12-20T15:35:18Z")
This may be stretching it, but if we allow T.V. and multiple heroes, I nominate [The Wonder Twins](http://www.seanbaby.com/superfriends/wondertwins.htm).
And of course, by this token, the most annoying sidekick of all time is the [hound from Hell whose name must never be spoken.](http://www.yomomma.com/Writings/cantidoon/scrappy.jpg)
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